1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wiring harness arranging device for use in a door hinge portion of a vehicle. The wiring harness arranging device is particularly designed to facilitate installation and to prevent the entrance of water with a simple means by arranging a wiring harness more toward a passenger compartment than a hinge point and more inward than a weatherstrip.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A prior art door harness may be arranged from a door side to a body side of a vehicle and may be connected with an instrument panel harness (hereinafter, "IP harness") at the body side. Alternatively, the prior art IP harness may be arranged from the body side to the door side and may be connected with the door harness at the door side. The prior art door harness typically is arranged in substantially the same position as a hinge point of the door in the horizontal direction, but displaced therefrom along the vertical or height direction, so that the door harness is only bent without being extended or contracted as the door is opened and closed.
FIGS. 8 and 9 show a prior art hinge H for connecting a body C and a door D. The hinge H is mounted substantially in the middle of an end surface 1a of a door panel 1. A door harness W/H needs to be arranged inside the door panel 1 and taken outside the door D through a through hole 1b formed in the end surface 1a. It takes time and labor to arrange the wiring harness inside the door panel 1 and to pass it through the through hole 1b.
Further, a weatherstrip 2 is mounted on the door D in order to prevent the entrance of water. Since the weatherstrip 2 is mounted more toward the passenger compartment than the hinge H, the wiring harness W/H is located more away from the passenger compartment than the weatherstrip 2. Accordingly, the weatherstrip 2 cannot fulfill its water preventing function at the location where the wiring harness is arranged, necessitating a water preventing construction for the wiring harness W/H. In view of this, a conventional practice has been to mount waterproof grommets on the holes formed in the body C and the door D for the arrangement of the wiring harness W/H, and a certain measure is taken to make the wiring harness W/H waterproof. However, such a practice is costly and cumbersome.
The above problem can be solved by arranging the wiring harness W/H more toward the passenger compartment than the weatherstrip 2. However, in such a case, since the arrangement position of the wiring harness W/H is displaced from the hinge point along the horizontal direction, the wiring harness W/H needs to be extended and contracted when the door D is opened and closed. In other words, the wiring harness to be arranged in the door hinge portion is required to have both an extendible/contractible function and a twist take-up function.
A construction in which a wiring harness is arranged more toward the passenger compartment than a weatherstrip is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 8(HEI)-48146. Specifically, as shown in FIGS. 10 and 11 of that reference, a corrugated duct 4 for covering an air conditioning duct is mounted between a side cover 3 of an instrument panel and an inner surface 1c of a door opposite to the side cover 3, and a wiring harness W/H spirally wound to have a margin length is arranged inside this duct 4.
However, since the spiral wiring harness W/H is arranged inside the corrugated duct 4 in the above construction, several problems may occur. For example, when the wiring harness W/H extends in the center of the corrugated duct 4 as shown in FIGS. 12(A) and 12(B), the corrugated duct 4 and the spiral wiring harness W/H are allowed to extend and contract in a normal manner. However, if a part W of the wiring harness W/H enters a recess 4a of the corrugation of the duct 4 as shown in FIG. 13(A), the duct 4 cannot contract. If the door is closed in this state as shown in FIG. 13(B), the duct 4 and the wiring harness W/H may be damaged by being jammed between the door panel 1 and the side cover 3 and, in a worst case, the wire may be cut. Additionally the spiral wiring harness W/H is not necessarily constantly restored to its specific configuration after the extension or contraction. If the outer diameter of the wiring harness becomes larger than the inner diameter of the corrugated duct 4, the corrugated duct 4 is destroyed and cannot contract any longer. Since the corrugated duct 4 is exposed to the passenger compartment, it may be deformed by an external force. In such a case, the spiral wiring harness W/H located inside may enter the recess 4a of the duct 4, and accordingly the problem of FIGS. 13(A) and 13(B) is likely to occur. Furthermore, when the door D is opened and closed, a force to extend and contract the corrugated duct 4 is needed in addition to a door opening/closing force, disadvantageously making the door heavier for a driver or passenger to open and close it.
In order to overcome above problems, it is an object of the present invention to provide a wiring harness arranging device allowing arrangement of a wiring harness in a position at a radial distance from a hinge point between two elements that move and/or rotate with respect to each other, the position being preferably more toward a passenger compartment than a hinge point and preferably more inward than a weatherstrip, to facilitate an arrangement operation and to prevent the entrance of water with a simple means.